1. Did you know the number of possible ways ofplaying the first four moves for both sides in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000 ?2. The longest game of chess that is theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.3. The first chessboard withalternating light and dark squares (as it appears today) was made in Europein 1090.4. According to the America's Foundation for Chess, there are 169,518,829,100 ,544,000,000,00 0,000,000 (approximately 1.70x10 29) ways to play the first 10 moves of a game of chess. And they thought a computer would solve chess!6. The longest chess game ever was I.Nikolic - Arsovic, Belgrade 1989, which ended in 269 moves. The game was a draw.7. There are 400 different possible positions after onemove each. There are 72,084 different possible positions after two moves each. There are over 9 million different possible positions after three moveseach. There are over 318 billion different possible positions after four moves each. The number of distinct 40-move games in chess is far greater than the number of electrons in the observable universe. The number of electrons is approximately 10^79 , whilethe number of uniquechess games is 10^120 .8. The new pawn move, where pawns were allowed to advance two squares on its first move instead of one, was first introduced in Spain in 1280.9. The first chess game played between space and earth was on June 9, 1970 by the Soyez-9 crew. The game ended in a draw.10. An old puzzle: If you put one grain of wheat on the first square of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and so on, how many grains of wheat do you need to put on the 64th square? The answer is 9,223,372,036,8 54,775,808(appr oximately 9.22x10 18 ) grains of wheat. That's a lot of nutrition.11. The folding chessboard was invented by a priest who was forbidden to play chess. The priest found a way around it by making a folding chessboard. When folded together and put ona bookshelf, it simply lookslike two books.12. Kirk and Spock have played chess three times on the show Star Trek. Kirk won all three games.5413. A computer called DeepThought became the first computer to beat an international grandmaster in November 1988, Long Beach, California.14. The longest chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.15. The longest time for a Castling move to take placewas the match game between Bobotsor vs. Irkovin 1966: 46. 0-0.16. As late as 1561, Castling was two moves. You had to play R-KB1 on one moveand K-KN1 on the next move.17. The word "Checkmate" in Chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means"the King is dead."18. Blathy, Otto (1860-1939), credited for creating the longest Chess Problem, mate in 290 moves.19. The Police raided a ChessTournament in Cleveland in1973,arrested the Tournament director and confiscated the Chess sets on charges of allowing gambling (cash prizes to winners) and possession of gambling devices (the Chess sets).20. The number of possibilities of a Knight's tour is over 122 million.21. The longest official chessgamelasted 269 moves (I. Nikolic - Arsovic, Belgrade 1989)22. From the starting position, there are eight different ways to Mate in two moves and 355 different ways to Mate in three moves.23. The new Pawn move, advancing two squares on its first move instead of one, was first introduced inSpain in 1280.24. Dr. Emanuel Lasker from Germany retained theWorld Chess Champion titlefor more time than any other player ever: 26 years and 337 days.25. In 1985, the Soviet player Garry Kasparov became the youngest World Chess Champion ever at the age of 22 years and 210 days.26. The first Chessboard with alternating light and dark squares appears in Europe in 1090.27. During World War II, some of the top Chess players were also code breakers. British masters Harry Golombek, Stuart Milner-Barry and H. O'D. Alexander was on the teamwhich broke the Nazi Enigma code.